Farmers take to horse-breeding in Rajasthan

Sriganganagar, Nov 22 : A trend, which is catching up fast in the Sriganganagar region of Rajasthan is that farmers have taken to horse-breeding in a big way to supplement their income.

Until now these farmers used to survive on income from agriculture but with dwindling returns from their harvest, they have taken to horse breeding to augment their income.

To boost horse breeding in the region, a horse fair was organized recently by Maharana Pratap Horse Rearing Organization.

Laxman Singh, one of the organizers of the fair, said that they were organizing this fair to augment their income.

"I thought that whatever we earn out of farming was being invested in farming and we were hardly left with anything. In order to augment our income we took to horse breeding and started this fair. I don't do any work besides looking after these horses after I'm done with farming," said Laxman Singh.

Lakhvir Singh, a farmer, said that people from far off places come to the fair to get the horse of their choice.

"Punjab was very well off from the beginning but our area was backward in all respects. We are happy that this horse fair has started taking place here, he added."

Besides generating employment opportunities for the uneducated youth in the region the fair helps in generating valuable foreign exchange.

India is currently exporting race horses to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and the indigenous Marwari breed to the USA for its exotic value. The number of horses exported however remains small.

Though India is looked upon by West Asian countries as a suitable breeding ground for horses because of favorable weather conditions, little is being done to tap the potential. By Lokendra Singh

ANI